Lillard and Matthews combine for 53, Trail Blazers blow out 76ers
Damian Lillard finished with 28 points and notched nine assists, while Wesley Matthews added 25 points and two assists to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a blowout victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, 114-93. The Trail Blazers shot lights out in this game, finishing 42-88 (47.7%). Portland (24-7) has now won seven of their last 10 games.
Lillard finished 9-17 from the field (3-8 on 3-point attempts) in a quality offensive outing. Despite the loss, Tony Wroten put up 22 points off the bench for Philadelphia on 7-13 shooting (1-4 on 3-point attempts), in addition to going 7-9 from the free throw line.
As expected, the 76ers offense did not have its best game, struggling to score against the elite Trail Blazers defense that ranks third in the league with a defensive efficiency of 98.8. They registered just .884 points per possession in this game, and rank 30th in the NBA with an offensive efficiency of 91.2 on the season. The Trail Blazers combined an eFG% of 58.0% with 41.9% 3-point shooting. They are 3-1 this year when registering marks above 55% and 40% in those respective statistics. The 76ers, on the other hand, are winless (0-5) when allowing opponents to hit those marks.
This drops Philadelphia (4-24) to 0-2 versus Portland on the season.
Coming up, the Trail Blazers play the New York Knicks, who are 5-26 on the season. The 76ers match up against the Utah Jazz, currently sitting at 9-20 this year. The Trail Blazers have a 1-0 record against New York this season.
